The Avalanche appeared to be cruising toward the win, when the
wheels suddenly flew off.

Niedermayer scored his fourth goal of the season with just over
7 minutes remaining. Anderson was none too pleased, though, as
he felt Bobby Ryan interfered with him in the goal crease.

That upset the Avalanche, who thought it should've been
goaltender interference.

"Andy's laying on his back, how's he supposed to make a save?"
defenseman Kyle Quincey said. "What's considered goaltender
interference if that's not?"

With 4:55 remaining, Sexton tied the game when he slapped in a
pass from Saku Koivu. The Pepsi Center crowd suddenly went
quiet.

The game seemed headed for overtime, but Getzlaf gobbled up a
loose puck and knocked it by a sprawled-out Anderson to complete
the stunning rally.

"When you're down 2-0 with 8 minutes left, you think things are
almost wrapped up," said Getzlaf, who scored a goal for the
fourth straight game. "It's a situation where we battled pretty
hard and got a few bounces and were able to get back on the
board."

Despite the late-game collapse, the Avalanche head into the
Christmas break leading the Northwest Division.

But this wasn't exactly the way they wanted to go into the
break.

"You have to let them go," Scott Hannan said. "We are still in
first place and we know we are a great hockey team. ... You know
it is tough when you play 82 games, those are going to happen.
You don't want them to happen. You have to take away what you
can from it and learn from it."

The Ducks have one more game before the holiday hiatus,
traveling to Phoenix on Wednesday night.

Anaheim kept the pressure on in the second period, outshooting
Colorado 14-4. But the Ducks couldn't get anything past
Anderson. It certainly wasn't from a lack of point-blank
opportunities. Anderson blocked a shot by Corey Perry with his
chest, then later turned back James Wisniewski's slap shot from
the right side with less than a second left in the period.

All the pressure eventually paid off.

"The first goal was huge for us because it kind of broke the ice
for us and we were able to get a few more right after that,"
Sexton said. "They had some big goals, but we carried the play."

The Avalanche jumped out to an early 1-0 lead in the opening
period when Yip took a pass from Matt Hendricks and lined it by
Hiller. Yip becomes the latest member of Colorado's youth
movement. So far this season, the Avalanche have had six
different players make their debut.

This was Yip's third career game after being recalled from Lake
Erie of the AHL on Friday.

Notes: Colorado F Marek Svatos missed his fifth game with a
groin injury. ... First-year Avs coach Joe Sacco said that D
Ruslan Salei will be sidelined indefinitely after recently
undergoing back surgery. ... Sacco was a member of Anaheim
during the team's inaugural season in 1993-94. .. Anaheim has
won five straight over Colorado.